(13 December 2017, Hong Kong) Asia’s flexible office market reached its latest milestone as coworking giant WeWork agreed to lease an entire building of approximately 27,000 sqm GFA in Shanghai’s core CBD, in a transaction brokered by JLL recently. This leasing transaction is WeWork’s biggest branch in Asia Pacific in the newly built China Overseas International Center in Huangpu District. It demonstrates the rapid adoption of coworking in China over the past year.
Coworking operator signs Shanghai’s 2017 biggest single Grade A office leasing deal in core CBD*
“The fact that Shanghai’s biggest single Grade A office leasing deal in core CBD signed so far in 2017 involves a coworking operator is not surprising, considering the demand for flexible office space in the region and the appeal of these innovative office strategies to more and more large corporations.” said Eddie Ng, Managing Director of Shanghai & East China, JLL.
“In the past year, our team has assisted coworking operators in leasing a total GFA of more than 70,000 sqm in the city, and we are confident this will continue to be the key trend in the coming year.” It aligned with JLL’s “Coworking: Fad or fixture” report launched in late 2016.
Occupiers transform workplace strategy in response to disruptive business environment
The landmark office leasing deal serves as an excellent testimonial for JLL’s Future of Work research, which shows occupiers’ new levels of perspective in more efficient workplace strategies, especially in China.
“Chinese cities make up five of the world’s ten most expensive locations for premium office rents and the China market is getting more competitive.” explained Anny Zhang, Head of Markets, Shanghai, JLL. “These challenges are transforming occupiers’ vision for new solutions of their workplace, which ultimately impact their ability in recruiting and retaining talents.”
JLL’s lately published global research platform Future of Work takes a unique outlook on the changing world of work and its impact on the next generation of corporate real estate.
Developers looking beyond the traditional value of office buildings
In JLL’s view, WeWork’s leasing milestone at Shanghai China Overseas International Center demonstrates the opportunity that coworking presents to real estate developers as a new dimension of service offering, providing more flexible options to its office tenants.
“Millennials’ new expectation from work, the development of innovation, the revolution of high-tech and internet all profoundly change corporates’ business operation and workspace requirement.” commented by Mr. Lu Fengcun, General Manager of China Overseas Commercial Properties Company (Shanghai). “Looking into the future, we will look beyond the traditional value of office buildings to deliver more comprehensive, agile and flexible services to our tenants while fully utilizing the advantage of our integrated commercial platform.”
“We expect to see more transactions like this in the future as office developers increasingly see coworking space as a key element in their total building solution and experience.” said Anny Zhang.